In 1846, King Frederick William IV of Prussia invited his English friend, the translator Jonathan Birch, to choose apartments in one of his royal palaces. But what possible interest could that have for a medievalist? As it happens, Birch was the first person to produce a ‘complete’ English translation ('translation' is a word which potentially … Continue reading An English ‘Nibelungenlied’ Translator in Berlin

I have recently written a blog post about Leeds International Medieval Congress for the Irish Humanities Alliance, for their 'Busy Season' series: Lectures have ended, exams are corrected, just what do academics do all summer? Fieldwork and research, write books and articles, organise and attend conferences, update next year’s courses, supervise postgraduate dissertations, overhaul websites… For … Continue reading I Know What The Medievalists Did Last (and Every) Summer….

I've recently written a post for the Birkbeck Pilgrim Libraries Network, which you can read over at their website. Here's an extract from the introduction: The co-opting, or re-presenting, of other pilgrimage or travel texts is an integral aspect of pilgrimage writing. This doesn’t mean that pilgrim writings are simply generic – in fact this essential … Continue reading Whose Words? Blog for Pilgrim Libraries

My article introducing Merton College MS 315, the oldest book in Merton College's library, was published in Oxford German Studies (Volume 46, Number 2, 2017). This was a special journal issue on the German manuscripts in Oxford, coming out of a colloquium in honour of Nigel Palmer’s 70th birthday. Abstract This is a brief introduction to … Continue reading Merton College, MS. 315. An Introduction